| Park Central Hotel | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Interactive map of Park Central Hotel | |
| General information | |
| Type | Hotel |
| Architectural style | Renaissance revival |
| Location | 860–882 7th Avenue, 201–211 West 55th Street, 200 West 56th Street, 870 7th Avenue,Midtown Manhattan,New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°45′53″N73°58′52″W / 40.76472°N 73.98111°W /40.76472; -73.98111 |
| Completed | 1926 |
| Opened | June 12, 1927 |
| Height | 357 feet (109 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 25 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Gronenberg & Leuchtag |
| References | |
| [1] | |
ThePark Central Hotel is a 25-story, 761-room[2] hotel located southwest ofCarnegie Hall at 8707th Avenue (between West55th and56th Streets) inMidtown Manhattan,New York City. It was designed in theRenaissance Revival style and opened on June 12, 1927. The Park Central is an independent hotel managed by Highgate Holdings.
The Park Central Hotel is named because of its proximity toCentral Park, though it does not have views of the park. It was designed in theRenaissance Revival style and has housed such figures asJackie Gleason,Mae West, andEleanor Roosevelt, who kept asuite there from 1950 to 1953. It occupies the east half of thecity block betweenSeventh Avenue andBroadway. Anchoring the west half is1740 Broadway, a 26-story, 375-foot (114 m)skyscraper formerly owned byMutual of New York, with aweather beacon[3] as well as an imposingfaçade.[3]
The Mermaid Room was created as the hotel's cocktail bar and nightclub in the late 1940s.Irving Fields and his trio played there from 1950 to 1966.[4]
Park Central Hotel is located on the former site of the Van Corlear building, the first apartment hotel in New York City, designed byHenry Janeway Hardenbergh and built in 1879. The Van Corlear was demolished in 1921 to make way for the Park Central Hotel.[5]
The hotel was built by Harry A. Lanzer and opened on June 12, 1927. Lanzer sold the hotel toSheraton in 1948 and it became the Park-Sheraton Hotel.[4] Sheraton renamed it The New York Sheraton Hotel in 1972,[4] not to be confused with the laterSheraton New York Hotel. In 1983, Sheraton sold the hotel for $60 million[6] to V.M.S. Realty, which contracted with Dunfey Hotels to manage the hotel through theirOmni Hotels division, and the hotel was renamed the Omni Park Central in January 1984.[7] The hotel was sold to developerIan Bruce Eichner in 1995[4] and left the Omni chain, reverting to its original name, Park Central Hotel. Eichner converted half the hotel's 1,450 rooms into the Manhattan Club, a 266-unit, all-suitetimeshare development located at the north side of the hotel at 200 West 56th Street.
It is infamous as the site of the assassination of mobsterAlbert Anastasia, which took place on October 25, 1957, in the hotel's barber shop.[8] Earlier, in 1928, the Jewish gangster and well-dressed prototype of the modern don,Arnold Rothstein, was shot and fatally wounded inside one of the suites.[9] The silent-film actorRoscoe Arbuckle died in 1933 from a heart attack in his sleep in his suite in the hotel.[10]
The hotel was the venue for theNational Football League Draft from1980 to1985. Today, the Park Central is an independent hotel managed by Highgate Holdings.[11] The facade was renovated in 2007.[3]
Media related toPark Central Hotel at Wikimedia Commons| Preceded by | Venues of theNFL draft 1980–1985 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
40°45′53″N73°58′52″W / 40.76472°N 73.98111°W /40.76472; -73.98111
